Wireless networks continue to evolve as new communication technologies develop and standardize. Wireless network operators can deploy new communication technologies in parallel with earlier generation communication technologies, and wireless networks can support multiple communication technologies simultaneously to provide smooth transitions through multiple generations of wireless communication devices. Wireless communication devices can include hardware and software to support wireless connections to wireless networks using different configurations to provide features that enhance performance and power efficiency. A wireless service provider can provide a broad range of services to wireless communication devices that can adapt wireless circuitry to balance high data rate performance with battery saving power efficiency. In a representative embodiment, a wireless service provider and/or a wireless communication device can include support for a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) wireless communication protocol. In some embodiments, the wireless service provider and/or the wireless communication device can also support communication using a “legacy” third generation (and/or an earlier generation) wireless communication protocol. Representative “legacy” protocols include the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1× (also referred to as 1×RTT or 1×) wireless communication protocol, the 3GPP Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) wireless communication protocol, and the 3GPP Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) wireless communication protocol. The LTE/LTE-A wireless communication protocols can provide improved radio technology and network architectures to support higher data transfer rates, lower latencies, and a higher capacity for communication to multiple wireless communication devices in a geographic area. The LTE/LTE-A wireless communication protocol can include techniques that use multiple transmit and/or receive antennas in parallel to improve signal quality reception by a wireless communication device, e.g., through spatial diversity that can provide for signal reception at different spatial locations of the wireless communication device simultaneously. With multiple receive antennas, the wireless communication device can receive signals from an LTE/LTE-A wireless network through multiple transmission paths, which the wireless communication device can combine to provide a “stronger” receive signal or a higher data rate (due to parallel data transmission).
A wireless communication device can include wireless circuitry that supports communication using one or more different wireless communication protocols and using multiple configurations in accordance with a particular wireless communication protocol. The wireless circuitry can include multiple RF transmit and/or RF receive signal chains, including multiple antennas and parallel signal processing blocks. Each RF receive signal chain, when powered to receive signals, can consume battery power, even when no downlink data is received or when no uplink data is transmitted. The wireless communication device can be configured to transmit and/or receive signals through multiple RF signal chains simultaneously, e.g., as used for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication, or for downlink diversity transmissions to the wireless communication device. The wireless communication device can also be configured to transmit and/or receive signals through a single RF signal chain, e.g., via a primary RF signal chain or a secondary RF signal chain, depending on wireless signal conditions. The wireless communication device can also be configured to power down all or portions of the wireless circuitry to conserve battery power, e.g., during discontinuous receive (DRX) modes and/or during idle modes. For an LTE wireless communication protocol, various inactivity timers that can activate power saving modes can be determined by the LTE wireless network to which the wireless communication device is registered and/or connected. The values specified by the LTE wireless network's inactivity timers can be selected to conserve radio frequency resources (e.g., by disconnecting signaling connections for inactive wireless communication devices) and/or to minimize radio resource control signaling traffic (e.g., by avoiding repeated disconnections and re-connections by a wireless communication device with the LTE wireless network). The selection of values for inactivity timers, however, can be not optimal for conserving battery power of the wireless communication device. Thus, methods and apparatuses to improve battery power consumption, while retaining high performance connections between a wireless communication device and a wireless network can be desired.
This application describes methods and apparatuses by which a wireless communication device can be configured to operate using different configurations of wireless circuitry to balance throughput performance and battery power consumption while connected to a wireless network.